


It's Alright

by WyckedWrytes



Series: Heading For The Light [2]
Category: IT (1990)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Fluff, Friendship, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Other losers mentioned - Freeform, Post-Canon, Soft Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:48:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27191284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WyckedWrytes/pseuds/WyckedWrytes
Summary: Eddie and Richie continue their drive towards LA and give Mike a call.Set directly after part 1 of the series.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Series: Heading For The Light [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984915
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33





	It's Alright

**Author's Note:**

> This is all purely self-indulgent and literally no one asked me to continue my fic but I have more ideas I want to write down so I decided to make this a series.
> 
> Author knows nothing about the road system in America nor do the huge distances mean anything to someone who lives in a country the size of Finland so I’ve very purposefully decided not to talk in detail about whatever route they’re taking or how many hours they're traveling each day, after trying to do a whole lot of googling at first and only getting a headache. :/
> 
> I also decided to continue with using song titles and/or lyrics to name my fics in this universe, so the series name and the title of this part are thanks to the fact that I was listening to Traveling Wilburys vol. 1 while writing.

They decide to postpone their call to Mike until evening after all, if for nothing else then for the fact that they’ve only just confessed their feelings to _each other_ , and maybe they should get used to this shift in their dynamic for at least a few hours themselves before making any big revelations to anyone else – even if it does look like that for Mike it might not be such a big revelation at all. Eddie is not sure what to think about that, about Mike simply _looking_ at them interacting together and _knowing_.

When Richie told him about Mike’s last words to him before them leaving Derry together, about the way Mike looked at him when he’d said it, being happy for them, Eddie wasn’t ready to believe it at first. It actually kind of scared him to think that if Mike had seen it, who else might have taken one look at them and seen it, too? Who else might have looked at the way Eddie and Richie acted around each other and immediately come to the conclusion that yes, they were definitely doing something behind closed doors together that two men absolutely shouldn’t? That is not a relaxing kind of thought.

But… it’s Mike they are talking about here. Mike had always been observant, and still is. Also, it isn’t as if any of them – Mike included, once he finally leaves too – will have any need to go back to Derry, ever again… so what does it matter if everyone they’d come across during their time spent there had taken one look at him and Richie and thought of them as queer? Nothing. Not a damn thing. Why should Eddie worry about it?

And he isn’t worried about Mike knowing, especially not after what Richie told him about Mike’s parting words. But they do agree to only call him from wherever they will end up spending their next night in.

If they had been in a hurry to travel as many miles as possible the day before, today they are having no such rush. Eddie is feeling quite tired and sore after their long day driving yesterday, so today they travel at a much slower pace. They take many breaks with driving, just to walk around a bit and stretch their legs, to go and have something to eat at roadside diners, to get some more gas for the car while arguing about which one of them should pay. Richie wins this time around, but not before promising Eddie will be allowed to pay for the next fill of the tank.

Eddie even manages to nap a little while they’re on the road since his pain medication does make him quite tired, and Richie switches his otherwise non-stop chatter to a quiet humming along the music on the radio once he notices that Eddie’s answers are starting to get less frequent and his eyelids more heavy. The sound of humming and quiet singing lulls Eddie to sleep quickly.

It feels nice, just traveling together like this, Eddie thinks fondly, and he is glad they had to make this trip by car instead of flying. It would’ve been so much faster and maybe more convenient too, to simply fly to LA, they would be at Richie’s place already had they simply booked a flight. But Eddie doesn’t much like plane travel – he’s always preferred driving, driving is what he does, what he loves, and when he had mentioned not being too keen on traveling by plane, Richie had immediately been on board with driving instead if that’s what Eddie preferred. Then they had mentioned their travel plans to Eddie’s doctor who had absolutely not recommended flying for at least a couple of weeks after having so many of his ribs cracked and a lung punctured on top of that, absolutely not. So Richie’d made some calls to his agent and just like that it had been settled. Road trip it was.

It would be nicer, of course, if Eddie could take turns to drive as well, but with his ribs being shattered to pieces just week and a half prior there's no way he'd be able to comfortably turn around enough while driving to properly see both left and right at crossroads and when making turns and everything, so he’s simply had to accept the fact that Richie will be his chauffeur this time around.

“ _I will drive you around once I get my business going in LA, however”, he’d promised, and Richie had laughed, delighted._

“ _I’m going to hold you onto that, Spaghetti Man. Maybe I’ll even make you my personal driver._ _Maybe I’ll refuse to go anywhere in anything else than one of the_ _Royal Crest l_ _imo_ _s_ _and with the_ _big_ _boss himself driving me!”_

“ _Don’t flatter yourself, Richie, I’ve_ _been driving_ _bigger stars than you, you know,_ _I could always turn you down_ _”, Eddie had quipped while smiling, and made Richie laugh even harder._

_He’d only been joking, of course. Eddie knows he would absolutely clear his schedule just so he could exclusively drive Richie around, if that was what Richie really wanted him to do._

It’s only a little pass 7 pm when they come by a motel that looks cozy enough from the outside and decide to stop there for the night. They get one room with two beds this time, for appearances sake if nothing else, but once they enter their room they take one look at the two beds, quite wide enough to easily hold two people each, and smile at each other fondly, before falling together on the nearest one – and then they are all over each other.

It’s exhilarating to be able to touch Richie now like this, to run his hands all over his arms and his back, to touch the back of his neck, to stroke his soft auburn hair gently, in a way Eddie had longed to do before but couldn’t because he’d thought Richie would never want anything like that from him. But he does, Richie does want him, does love him, in the same way Eddie wants and loves him in return, and that feels so good.

“I missed you”, Eddie tells Richie in between kisses, holding him close. “I know it sounds silly because we spent the entire day together, but I did. I couldn’t touch you. Not like this.” And he thinks of how much easier it would be if love like theirs was accepted, if they didn’t need to hide, but _it isn’t_ , and _they do_. Richie kisses his lips, his cheek, the juncture between his jaw and neck and his mustache is kind of tickling him, but Eddie doesn’t mind. He doesn’t mind, because it’s Richie. He likes it.

“I know Eds, I missed you too”, Richie sighs against his skin. “If that makes us silly, then so be it. Let’s be silly together. I wish I could touch you all the time. I would. Oh, but I would.”

“And I would let you, Richie…” Eddie mumbles as he lets Richie nibble at the skin on his neck, and it’s soft, it’s gentle, and then Richie kisses his way up again and slots his lips against his, and they kiss for a long while, with no hurry, and with no real need to do anything other than that, not right now.

Simply kissing is fine, kissing and being close – the raw hunger and want that possessed them that morning is not present now. Eddie still wants _everything_ Richie can give him… but in this moment he doesn’t feel the need for anything more, and he thinks neither does Richie. It simply feels good to be able to be this close to someone they love and have loved for a very long time, because as it turns out, both of them have harbored these feelings since they were only children.

Richie had told him earlier today when they were driving and he had tried to say it jokingly to mask his insecurity, claiming that his _first ever_ crush had probably been Big Bill – to which Eddie had simply replied that it was not exactly shocking, considering the fact that every one of them probably had at least a bit of a crush on Bill as children, including Ben, and Ben was also crushing hard on Beverly. And that had eased the tension somewhat and then Richie had softly admitted already having the biggest crush on Eddie when they were no older than 11. That’s why he had been unable not to touch and tease him all the time, because little Eddie Spaghetti had been the cutest thing young Richie’d ever set his eyes on and it used to drive him crazy.

“ _But it was Derry. It was Derry, and it was the ’60s and of course I wasn’t queer”, Richie had let out a hollow laugh at that. “And then I got crushes on girls, too, later. But I think you were always the one, Eddie. My number one. Even if I couldn’t really admit that even to myself back then.”_

_Eddie had listened and smiled a bit sadly, and reached out to softly touch Richie’s hand resting on the gear shift. Then he’d pulled his hand away again, looked out of his window, deep in thought, deep in memories he’d forgotten for such a long time but which were there again now and not going away, not this time, not ever. Eddie would hold on to those memories and not let them go._

“ _I never_ really _hated it when you called me those names and when you teased me and touched me”, he’d admitted then as well. “But I didn’t know how else to act. I hated it when my mother fussed over me, so I didn’t really know how to deal with touch of any kind, and you calling me cute and those silly names, it… was annoying, yes, but I also kind of liked it. I still do kind of like it. And you_ can’t _use this against me, Richie,_ promise! _” he had insisted, but with a smile on his face and Richie had just grinned at him._

“ _Anyway… I did always like you a lot, Richie, already as children. Even if I didn’t really understand it back then. But I do now”, he’d said quietly and a bit sadly. “I wonder… how different our lives might’ve been… if we never forgot.”_

“ _Me too, Spaghetti, me too…” Richie’d admitted, and after that they’d been quiet for a long while, Richie concentrating on just driving and Eddie staring out of the window, looking at the passing scenery and feeling sad over the things that could’ve been._

They will never know what could’ve been, but right now, here in this motel room together in each other’s arms, it’s quite easy not to dwell on that too much. Because even though they have spent so much, _too much,_ time apart and not remembering each other, they are together _now_ and they are learning to know each other properly again, and being with each other feels easy and right and maybe they wouldn’t have been ready for anything like this before, anyway.

Maybe they had to live the kinds of lives they did and only meet again at the age of forty to fully realize what they had been missing from their lives and to want to change things. Maybe if they never forgot… they might’ve grown distant over the years anyway and become strangers and never dared to confess their feelings to each other in the first place. There is no way to know. And there is no use thinking too hard about it.

Eddie rests his head on Richie’s chest once they cease their kissing and lets Richie comb his fingers through his curls, already messy after the day’s travel. It feels really nice and Eddie smiles contently. Then, because he is feeling way too content right now, just listening to Richie’s strong heartbeat and being petted like a big cat, and because he fears he might actually doze off if he’s not careful, he asks: “So… we should call Mike, right?”

Then, because it’s been two days since they talked with the rest of the Losers on the phone as well and he misses them, he continues. “And after that, maybe Bill and Bev and Ben, too?” He hears – and feels – Richie’s breath hitch a bit at that and rushes to assure him: “Not to tell them, not yet, Richie. Just to talk. We’ll only tell Mike for now. Just like we agreed.”

Eddie fumbles a bit and gets up into a sitting position because he feels like if they’re going to have a conversation, it’s better to do it while looking at each other in the eye. Richie follows him, giving him an apologetic look and a small, half-hearted grin.

“Sorry, Spaghetti Man. I do want to tell all of them, _I do_. Just… not yet. And not… maybe not… on the phone. Mike seems to know already so it’s different, but as for the rest of them, I just -” Richie rubs at his eyes and when he looks at him again after that, he looks ashamed. Eddie gives him a reassuring smile. Richie is scared, and that’s something Eddie understands all too well, because he is scared too. He touches Richie then, simply takes his hands to his own and squeezes, hard, hoping it will reassure him a bit.

“I am scared too”, he says and gives Richie a small smile. “It’s alright. We don’t even need to tell Mike just yet if you don’t want to, I promise. I want our friends to know but I want you to be ready for it as well and we’re in no hurry. And I really want to call the rest of the Losers now, too, but only because I miss them terribly and I want to hear from them. Alright?”

“Alright”, Richie says and lets out a weak little laugh. “Sorry for freaking out. I’m trying, Eds, I swear I am. You are so brave and if it weren’t for you I would never have been able to be honest about my own feelings for you and I am not ashamed of you, of us, but this is kind of huge.”

“It is, Richie. I know”, Eddie says, and he does. They stay quiet for a while, just sitting there, with Richie’s hands in Eddie’s own, Eddie rubbing little patterns on the backs of Richie’s hands with his thumbs, and then finally Richie takes a deep breath and asks: “Do you think we could call Stan, too? Mike did give us his number as well, didn’t he?” Eddie smiles.

“Yes, he did. Sure. Let’s call Stan as well. It’s been way, way too long.”

But first they call Mike. They hold the phone between them so they can both easily speak and hear their friend, and at first they just talk about normal things, like how Mike is feeling and doing in general, how they managed to escape Eddie’s mother in one piece, how it’s been on the road so far, whether Mike has any news of the other Losers and so on and so forth. Then, when Mike’s just finished telling them about his long phone call with Bill who, apparently, wants to come back to Maine soon and help Mike with his move and stuff, Eddie and Richie give each other a look and decide it’s time. If they’re going to tell Mike, it’s going to be now.

“Well, Mike, before we bid you farewell, there is actually something we would like to tell you”, Richie starts.

“Sure, guys, what is it?” They can hear the smile in Mike’s voice. Richie looks at Eddie and tilts the phone a bit more towards him. Right. Richie looks awfully nervous despite just cracking jokes on the phone not too long ago and Eddie nods at him, smiling gently. He’s nervous too, but he can do this. It’s just Mike.

“When we left Derry yesterday…” Eddie speaks now. “Richie said you told him something, just before he got inside the car. Something about… being happy for us. For both of us.” He pauses for a moment, hesitates a bit, but then pushes forward. “He wondered about the way you said it. Said that maybe it wasn’t anything, but… maybe it was. In any case… whether you meant it that way or not, we… Well, me and Richie… We are together, Mike. In a relationship kind of way.” He meets Richie’s eyes and sees worry in them but also relief, he thinks. “You’re the first person who knows.”

And then they wait, holding their breaths, and it’s probably not long at all, probably only couple of seconds or so, but it feels like so much longer before Mike _finally_ speaks and they can hear the smile in his voice again. And they knew, of course they did, that Mike would never judge them or turn his back on them, but it’s still such a relief.

“Well, I told Richie yesterday and I will tell you both now again: I _am_ happy for you both. So happy. You guys deserve all the happiness you can get.” That’s actually so sweet and so like Mike to say that Eddie gives Richie a watery smile and giggles, and Richie relaxes significantly because of Mike’s words and even his whole posture seems to turn all different in mere seconds.

“How did you know, Mike?” Richie then asks. “Were we truly so obvious to you? Because none of this was obvious to _us._ When you told me that yesterday we weren’t together _together_ yet.”

“Wait – you _weren’t?_ ” There’s genuine confusion in Mike’s voice.

“We weren’t”, Eddie confirms. “Something… well, something happened and I confessed to Richie. This morning.”

“Oh”, is all Mike has to say to that. Richie groans.

“Great. So what you’re saying is me and Spaghetti Man are blind idiots, is that it?”

“When exactly did I say that, Richie?” And now Mike just sounds exasperated. “I simply observed you two. You two were always so handsy, already as children. Well, you were anyway, Richie, I remember Eddie wasn’t all that fond of it back then… But now… Now you were _both_ all over each other and I just thought it was… different, somehow, than between all the rest of us. Different even than what was between Ben and Bev. It was as if you were finishing each other’s sentences sometimes, especially when you two stayed with me for that one day, and you seemed so happy and excited about the fact that you would be living together soon and so I simply assumed.

It seems like I didn’t assume correctly at the time but I’m glad you figured it out and I’m glad you wanted to tell me. That means a lot.”

“Of course, Mike”, Eddie says softly. “We wanted to start with you.”

“We haven’t exactly figured out how or when to tell the rest of the gang yet but we’ll come up with something sooner or later, I think”, Richie continues. “Or do you think they know already as well?”

Mike laughs.

“Beverly maybe, if anyone”, he then says. “Not Ben though, I don’t think, or Bill. _Definitely_ not Bill. He’s an author, they live in their own little worlds.”

They all chuckle a bit at that because that’s true, Bill used to be a bit of a daydreamer already in their childhood, and from the little things they got to know about the adult version of him in the few days they spent together in Derry, that hadn’t really changed. If the two of them were a bit oblivious, so was Bill, maybe even more so. Beverly could be observant… so it was possible she might suspect something, if the two of them really were that easy to read. And Ben only had eyes for Beverly, so he probably didn’t pay much attention to Eddie and Richie’s interactions together. Ben was sweet, but he could also have a bit of a one track mind.

They end the call few moments later with smiles on their faces and Eddie is feeling so happy and light and when he looks at Richie he’s looking so happy as well and that only makes Eddie feel happier still. It’s going to be alright, he knows. Their friends are going to accept them and continue loving them and it’ll be alright even if nobody else ever accepts them, because those people are not important, the other Losers are.

Eddie pulls Richie into a loving kiss and Richie gladly lets him and kisses back just as lovingly, and when they part again after a while they are both grinning like idiots. They kiss a few more times, softly, gently, and then they pick up the phone again and decide to call Stan’s number next.

Hopefully he will be positively surprised to hear from them.

**Author's Note:**

> Royal Crest, the name of Eddie’s company which is mentioned briefly, I took from the book. Other than that my writing is based on the 1990 miniseries and my own headcanons only.
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are much loved!


End file.
